A global discussion about the impact of shopping culture on brand strategy, led by the strategic community of The Integer Group which is one of the world's largest and most renowned retail, promotions and shopper marketing agencies.

H&M has unveiled their first cafe in London’s Westfield White City store, the fourth worldwide, called “It’s Pleat”. As part of their shopping trip to H&M, shoppers can now sit down for breakfast, lunch or coffee, choosing between healthy meals made from organic, local ingredients and wrapped in compostable packaging.

As brick-and-mortar stores continue to lose to the meteoric rise of online shopping, retailers are trying to find new solutions to drive foot traffic. It’s Pleat is tapping into the growing food trend among younger demographics, creating a longer lasting and more relaxed shopping experience. Meanwhile, U.S. supermarkets from Whole Foods to Kroger’s are setting up bars inside their stores helping extend the time shoppers spend in their stores. As retailers keep fighting for foot traffic, brands should support their ambition by creating physical experiences and that engage shoppers and tempt them to stay a bit longer.

There are many reasons why Milan is sought-after by so many brands. For years it has not only been a modern business hub, but also a popular tourist and shopping destination. In 2015, Milan surpassed Rome, Venice, and Florence as the most-visited city in Italy. In addition, it is the only Italian town that is listed in the top 20 destination cities worldwide according to the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index 2018.

As a result, Milan is an increasingly attractive location for global brands to establish new flagship stores or test new store concepts. Here are a few examples.

—Appleopened a store designed by the famous architect Norman Foster that is second only to San Francisco's main store in floor area (3,500 square-meters). The store hosts events year-round through its Today at Apple program. Its mission is to inspire young creatives in Milan. It's a place to meet, learn, share ideas and discover what Milan might create in the future.

—NBA is opening its first European flagship store close to the Cathedral, which will be its third flagship store and similar in the concept to its store in New York City. The store will offer official uniforms, sneakers, collectibles, and exclusive NBA products.

London bakery chain Gail’s has introduced “waste bread”—a loaf of sourdough bread made from any kind of unsold bread from the day before. The new product is one examples of many brands trying to take action and find new solutions for the growing food waste problem across the UK. With an estimated annual food waste bill of £20 billion, bread counts as one of the main culprits as Brits throw away 24 million slices every day.

More retailers and brands have started to tackle this problem. Earlier this year, M&S partnered with Adnams to brew an exclusive range of beers using excess bread from the retailer. Iceland has introduced a similar beer, called Bread Board, using their unsold loaves of bread. And Kellogg’s have teamed up with Salford-based brewery, Seven Bro7hers to create a beer made with cornflakes that did not make it through quality control due to shape and size, but were perfectly edible.

While such innovations may still be a small drop in the big bucket of food waste, they make the problem tangible to consumers, and present it to a wider audience in compelling new formats for shoppers to engage with.

Italy has not been experiencing its typical autumn weather. For the past two years, weather has been hot and sunny into September and even October, and consumers are taking note (and adjusting their shopping behavior accordingly).

One of the industries that is more affected by this prolonged hot weather is textile and fashion. “People are wearing light garments until the beginning of November and then they decide to wait for Black Friday or even Christmas sales,” noted Patrizia Bolzoni, General Manager Sergio Tacchini, a company working in the apparel sector.

“An evidence of this trend is OVS performance: it closed 7,69% under at Milan Stock Exchange, after HSBC cut their target price from 2.9 to 2€ with a ‘hold’ judgement.” HSBC also linked the more cautious position to the particularly warm weather in the third quarter.

Because of these changing shopper habits, fashion retailers are reassessing the kinds of clothes they sell and when they sell them: They are rethinking the design of the clothes, choosing lighter materials, or even researching smart materials designed to adjust to shifting temperatures, to push sales of garments suitable to warm weather.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect on May 25, 2018. Created to provide more control and better privacy protection to European Union residents, the GDPR compliance regulation affects all companies that are either marketing to or collecting data from EU consumers.

What US Marketers Need to Know?

Even if you work on US brands, your marketing may still be reaching shoppers from the EU—in fact, the terms used in the legislation are “data subject” and “natural persons,” which include non-citizen residents of and visitors to the EU for the duration of their stay. Therefore, consider that your next email promotion could reach U.S. citizens who are traveling or spending time living abroad and be subject to this legislation.

Also keep in mind that the GDPR can apply to brick-and-mortar as well as e-commerce. For example, shoppers paying with a credit or debit card, providing personal information such as a name or shipping address, or participating in a customer loyalty program can all fall under GDPR protections.

As far as financial penalties, non-compliance can lead to a maximum penalty of 20 million euros or 4% of your total global revenues, whichever is greater.

With Starbucks on every corner, Prime Now in major markets and chatbots on the rise it seems as if you can get anything in an minutes' time. But in reality, shoppers have to seek out locations or wait (an hour or a few days) to get things that are available at their fingertips (e.g., Amazon Prime). While brands and services strive to have mental availability, some of them lack the physical availability which is key to growing brands and sales.

When it comes to physical availability, Japan's vending machine scene is a site to behold. Vending machines are making "give it to me now" a reality for much of Japan. According to CNN, "The country has one machine for every 25 people, offering a range of goods from tomatoes and cans of hot coffee to noodle stew, beer and Buddhist charms." That's a lot of vending machines and a lot of options on every corner. But what is next? And how can a vending machine stand out?

If there's an occasion or event coming down the pipeline, you can bet your bottom dollar that the onslaught of thematic advertising is soon bound to follow. Nowadays, we've all grown pretty accustomed to the topical communications that sprout up from marketers during these key time frames. Whether it's for a traditional holiday (Valentine's Day, Father's Day) or the lesser-known yet socially revered National X Day (National Siblings Day, National Puppy Day), many brands have become experts at leveraging these moments as an opportunity to spark a conversation.

The underlying hope is that these marketing strategies create some top-of-mind awareness, an authentic connection, and that they ultimately lead to purchase. Most of the time, this can be a really effective tool. But what happens when we're all shouting the same thing at the same time? Will the communal and authentic spirit of the Olympic Games be able to shine through? Or does it come across as nothing more than a series of carefully premeditated machinations? This year, new policies put in place by the Olympic Committee could severely curb the oversharing frenzy of brands.

Mutant carrot or a coveted part of your next meal? Ugly isn't supposed to be cool. It's not very marketable. And only when ugly takes off its glasses and everyone realizes it was beautiful all along does ugly really become a great story. Well today, ugly is taking center stage and is culturally ripe for success. Pun intended, as fruits and vegetables are the place ugly is starting it's rise.

Over the last several months, ugly fruit fever is spreading. Efforts by Ralph's and WholeFoods have provided cosmetically challenged fruits and vegetables to shoppers at discount prices. Food service companies, such as Bon Appetit Management Co., have also started programs designed to buy up uglies and use them in meals across the country. Even America's largest grocer, Walmart, this week will pilot discount sales of weather-dented apples in 300 of its Florida stores.

This is a coming trend: The sushi of tomorrow called poke, pronounced “poh-key’. The word refers to diced fish. Poke is a raw fish salad served as an appetizer in Hawaiian cuisine. Traditional forms are aku (an oily tuna) and he’e (octopus). Increasingly popular ahi poke is generally made with yellowfin tuna.

The hip food of 2016 is revisiting the concept of poke. The idea is simple. One marinates raw fish in soy sauce, sprinkles it with sesame seeds. and serves it over rice. It can be topped with avocado, kale, fresh tomatoes, soy bean sprouts, sea lettuce, small chili peppers, macadamia nuts, mango, ginger, or coriander, depending on your mood.

Deliciously exotic and healthy, this dish attracts customers looking for flavor and freshness. A number of casual restaurants, especially in Los Angeles and New York, have already made poke the house specialty.

Whole Foods recently announced a partnership with Imperfect Produce to test-run sales of 'ugly' produce in a few of its Northern California stores, which is set to begin next month. This announcement comes after increasing consumer demands for the food industry and retailers to help eliminate food waste—a petition on change.org specifically called out Whole Foods, as well as Walmart, to take steps towards becoming more inclusive with their produce selections by including more imperfect fruits and vegetables. Giant Eagle has also announced this month that the grocery chain will incorporate 'ugly' produce in 5 Pittsburgh store locations as part of a "Produce with Personality" pilot program.

Did you know that March is Women’s History month? Did you know that March 8, 2016 is International Women’s Day? Everyday Google changes its homepage search bar and 3/8/16 was dedicated to women. Google is a huge brand with a ton of visibility and is making a statement about gender parity. How can your brand get involved and support this day/month? Could your brand/retailer create an event or promotion specifically for this cause?

We all have a friend who (or we), when asked the question, “What are your plans for Valentine’s Day?”, will roll their eyes and reply with the most colorless tone, “I don’t buy into this marketing celebration of consumerism” or something to that effect.

Black Friday, Valentine’s Day, Dry January, Back to School, Halloween… There are now so many occasions created by retailers and marketers in order to price discount, run competitions, and ultimately boost sales. No wonder consumers can be skeptical and dismissive. The wide variety of tools and shopping evolutions (e.g., price comparators, shopping apps, forums, rise of convenience and "locally produced" stores) has evolved consumers’ purchase influencers. Therefore, the relationship between the retailer and its consumers has to change and adapt.

Shoppers thoroughly enjoy Halloween and all the festivities and treats that it entails. But this season, some retailers are not just helping shoppers but also getting in on the fun themselves.

UK-based grocer Tesco transformed one of its chain locations into a "Spookermarket." Not only were aisles decked out for Halloween but the retailer played spooky hidden camera pranks on shoppers in the store. These frightful encounters are part of their "Spookermarket" campaign and have already generated over 10 million combined views across Facebook and YouTube in less than a week.

For the past ten years, Integer has looked at, and shared, over sixty macrotrends in its annual InSightings presentations. And, since we feel confident that the macrotrends from yesterday are still driving shopper, retailer and brand behavior today, we thought we’d review the TOP TEN FROM THE PAST TEN in our presentation to see if our mission statement when we began this journey has held true:

Chinese consumer confidence has decreased over the years yet prices continue to increase, because of this reality, marketers have to work harder to get a share of an increasingly smaller basket size. Gaining a better knowledge about the way people shop is more crucial than ever if brands and retailers want to exceed. This new study uncovers the complexities of Chinese shoppers by using a range of variables including spending habits, shopping attitudes and the key drivers behind purchases. With this, four different shopper archetypes were identified: the ‘Experience Lover’ who loves shopping and looks for unique experience; the ‘Precision Planner’, who is detail-oriented and willing to spend on high quality; the ‘Time Saver’ who sees shopping as a mission and focuses on efficiency; and the ‘Strategic Spender’ who validates the price and value from comparison and wants to get the best deal.